Vaccination and Your Child

There is no reason to watch your child suffer from a childhood disease if there is a good way to prevent it. And there are ways to prevent many of the conditions that used to be a common part of growing up. Vaccines have proven their effectiveness against childhood diseases time after time. As the old saying goes, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Why vaccinate?

Vaccines are so effective that most of the diseases that they help to prevent are now rare in Canada. Canadian children can be protected against many potentially dangerous childhood diseases like measles, mumps, pertussis (whooping cough), diphtheria, tetanus, certain types of meningitis, chickenpox, rotavirus, and polio.

What would happen if we stopped vaccinating? In other countries, when fewer people were immunized, diseases quickly increased or returned. For example:

In 2000, the number of measles cases in Ireland increased from 148 to more than 1,200 in just one year because vaccination was reduced to 76%. Several children died.

In 1999, there was a large outbreak of rubella (German measles) in Nebraska. The more than 90 adults who were affected had not previously been vaccinated, and most of them came from countries where rubella vaccine is not routine.

After a routine vaccination was cancelled in Russia, there were about 1,500 deaths due to diphtheria in 1995. In previous years, Russia, like Canada, had only a few cases of diphtheria each year and no deaths.

But do the benefits of vaccination outweigh the possible side effects? The short answer is yes. If there were no vaccines, there would be many more cases of disease, more serious complications from disease, and more deaths. The diseases that vaccines help prevent lead to pneumonia, deafness, brain damage, heart problems, blindness, severe diarrhea, and paralysis in children who are not vaccinated. Canadian children are very fortunate to have vaccines for diseases that still kill and disable children throughout the world every day. For most people, the risks of not being vaccinated are much greater than any risk of vaccination itself. Talk to your doctor if you have concerns.

Vaccination and antibiotic resistance

Antibiotics are a great medical discovery. They have defeated many disease-causing bacteria, saved many lives, and helped to avoid potential serious complications of many diseases and infections.

However, antibiotics are only effective for treating infections caused by bacteria, however. For viral infections, antibiotics have no effect. If a person takes an antibiotic to treat a viral infection, it will not help, and it may harm, since it
can lead to the phenomenon known as antibiotic resistance.

Antibiotic resistance, simply put, means that antibiotics that used to work to treat an infection no longer work. Over the past 50 years of widespread antibiotic use, many medications have lost their power to treat infections. Because of improper
use and over-prescribing of antibiotics, some bacteria have mutated in order to outsmart the effect of these medications.

When bacteria become resistant to the effects of the antibiotic, different and usually stronger antibiotics need to be used instead. Eventually, doctors could run out of medications to treat these infections, leading to serious consequences.

Before the Hib vaccine was developed, up to 30% of Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) bacteria, which used to be a common cause of meningitis in young children, had become resistant to amoxicillin, a commonly used antibiotic. Since the introduction
of Hib vaccines, the number of Haemophilus influenzae type b infections caused by drug-sensitive and drug-resistant bacteria has decreased by more than 96% in infants and children. This has substantially reduced the need for antibiotics to treat these
infections. So one possible solution to antibiotic resistance, at least for some bacteria, is vaccination. Vaccines can give your child immunity against bacteria that have become resistant to the antibiotics used to treat them.

There are other benefits to vaccination. For example, there is a vaccine against chickenpox (varicella) virus that indirectly works against antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Children who get chickenpox may develop skin infections with bacteria called
Staphylococcus aureus or group A streptococci, which may invade the blood stream. So, the chickenpox vaccine protects children not only against chickenpox, but also against infections caused by these bacteria, including those that are resistant to
antibiotics.

Knowing when to vaccinate

For your child to receive maximum protection against serious childhood diseases, they need to get all their shots at the right time. To help you make sure that they do, a vaccination schedule that you can easily follow has been developed especially for infants and children. This schedule may differ a little depending on which province you live in. Talk to your child's doctor about your provincial vaccination schedule, and ask your child's doctor or nurse to give you a record book to help keep track of all the shots your child gets (if one hasn't already been provided).

What vaccines should your child receive?

Some vaccines are covered by a provincial or territorial health plan, which means that you don't have to pay for them. Others are not covered by all provincial and territorial health plans, and you may have to pay for them, depending on where you live. Ask your doctor or public health nurse for more information.

Vaccines covered by all health plans

Diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, and Hib vaccines – These vaccines can sometimes be given as a single shot, also referred to as the "5-in-1 vaccine." This vaccine protects against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, polio, and Hib (Haemophilus influenzae type b). There is also a 4-in-1 shot that protects against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, and polio.

MMR vaccine – This single shot can help protect your child from 3 diseases: measles, mumps, and rubella.

Meningococcal vaccine - This protects against diseases caused by a bacteria called Meningococcus, including meningitis and septicemia (a serious blood infection that can cause death very quickly).

Influenza – This annual vaccine is recommended for many age groups to prevent the seasonal flu, especially in those at high risk of serious complications from the flu, including:

children 6 months to 59 months of age

children with heart problems

children with lung problems (such as asthma)

children with medical conditions such as cancer, diabetes, anemia, kidney disease, or certain neuromuscular disorders

children taking medications that suppress the immune system

children who need long-term treatment with acetylsalicylic acid (ASA)

children who live in chronic care facilities

children who live with other people who are at risk for flu complications

children who have a body mass index (BMI) of 40 or greater

children who are of Aboriginal descent

Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine – There are 2 types of HPV vaccine approved in Canada. One is approved for girls and young women aged 9 to 45 and boys and young men aged 9 to 26. This vaccine protects against the 2 types of HPV that cause approximately 70% of all cervical cancers and the 2 types of HPV that cause about 90% of all genital warts. The other vaccine is approved for girls and young women aged 10 to 25. This vaccine protects against the 2 types of HPV that cause approximately 70% of all cervical cancers. Both vaccines are given in 3 doses. All provinces and territories cover the cost of the HPV vaccine for girls in certain grades or of certain ages (check with your provincial health plan to find out the specifics).

Talk to your doctor about how many doses of each vaccine your child needs and at what ages your child should receive the doses.

Children who had trouble breathing or had severe swelling of the skin or mouth when getting a previous vaccine injection should not receive these vaccines.

Vaccines not covered by all health plans

The following vaccines are recommended even though they may not be covered by all provincial and territorial health plans. You may have to pay for them, depending on where you live. To find out more, talk to your child's doctor.

These vaccines are:

Rotavirus vaccine: Recommended for children aged 6 weeks to 32 weeks, this vaccine protects your child from the most common cause of severe diarrhea in babies and infants. Rotavirus infections can lead to dehydration that when severe require intravenous (into a vein) fluids. There are two vaccines available in Canada in liquid form that are given by mouth.

Travel vaccines – If you are planning a family trip outside of Canada, speak to your doctor or visit a travel clinic 6 to 8 weeks before your trip to find out whether you or your child will need any
immunizations before you travel.

Talk to your child's doctor to find out if these vaccines are right for your child.

It's not too late to vaccinate

If your child was not vaccinated as a baby, it's not too late to help protect your child against childhood diseases. Talk to your child's doctor about vaccination schedules for older children.

Vaccine safety

There are common misconceptions about vaccines that still exist today. You may see claims that vaccines are not safe, cause serious side effects and long-term diseases, or contain poisons. You may also have heard that they pose greater risks than the diseases they can prevent, or that they can be replaced by natural medicines that can provide safer protection. Scientific research shows that these statements are not true.

The safety and effectiveness of vaccines is strictly regulated and enforced in Canada and around the world. It is extremely rare to have a serious side effect caused by a vaccine. There is no conclusive scientific evidence that vaccines cause long-term diseases. In fact, studies have shown that vaccines do not cause inflammatory bowel disease, multiple sclerosis, brain damage, asthma, autism, or sudden infant death syndrome.

There have been concerns in the past about a potential link between thimerosal, a mercury-containing preservative found in some vaccines, and autism or nervous system damage. However, studies have shown that thimerosal in vaccines is not linked to these problems. As well, routine vaccines for children are available without thimerosal in both Canada and the US.

Because routine vaccines have a very low risk of serious side effects, there are rarely reasons not to be vaccinated. However, keep a few facts in mind:

If your child has an allergic reaction (such as breathing problems or severe swelling of the skin or mouth) to a vaccine, get immediate medical attention and talk to your doctor before they receive another shot.

If your child is allergic to any of the ingredients of a vaccine (for example, some vaccines contain trace amounts of neomycin or egg protein), talk to your doctor about whether they should be vaccinated.

With any vaccine, there may be some redness, swelling, or pain in the area where the needle went into the skin.

Some children may have a fever after they get the shot. If the fever or the vaccine is causing your child discomfort, ask your child's doctor what to give them to reduce the fever or pain.

If your child is very sick when it's time to vaccinate, talk to your doctor.

If you have questions about vaccines or your child's health, talk to your child's doctor or public health nurse.